Frances Curry, the mother of murdered Wellborn Elementary School teacher Kevin Thompson, spoke to WLJS News anchor Ed Moore III following the death sentence given to 24-year-old Nicholas Daniel Smith of Jacksonville, who was found guilty on July 2 for the April 2011 kidnapping, robbery and stabbing death of her son. Smith's sentence to be put to death by lethal injection was handed down Tuesday afternoon inside the courtroom of Calhoun County Circuit Court Judge Brian Howell.
Two other men, Jovon Dwayne Gaston, 22, of Anniston and Tyrone Christopher Thompson, 29, of Weaver, are also charged with capital murder in the death of Kevin Thompson. Both are being held at the Calhoun County Jail in Anniston while awaiting trial that according to prosecutors, should take place within the next 6-12 months for both of the defendants.
Here were Curry’s thoughts:
“I was a little bit afraid [Tuesday] morning. But I have been afraid for some time now. You know when you are dealing with human nature and you don’t know how things may come out. I was hopeful, but I wasn’t --- I was just afraid. It’s only something that someone who has lost a child will know. The fear is always there. The unknown is there.
“I got [to the courthouse] just a few minutes before one o'clock.
“I talked to God before going inside the courtroom. I wanted justice to be served. Not for vengeance. I just wanted justice to be served.
“I wanted my baby --- I wanted it to be known ----- I’m trying to word this the right way. I [wanted] Kevin to matter. Not just for me, but for every parent that has lost their child through violence.
“It was a hollow victory because I still do not have my son. What the judge told me and everyone else that commits these heinous crimes is that our children matter. We don’t make these sacrifices for nothing. We have got to stop giving our world to the criminals and we have to start taking it back.
“I have had such wonderful people holding me up when I don’t want to get up in the morning. All of this strength that I portray, it comes from God and his son Jesus and the people he has put in my midst that are Godly people.
“When I would always hear a person being brutally murdered or a child being harmed in some fashion, I’ve always cried and I’ve always went down in prayer for that family. It would always break my heart. I never thought I would endure that. The hardest thing for a person to understand is the misery and grief associated with losing a child. They think we should just [move on]. It’s not that easy. Our hope in humanity changes. It changes everything about what you say and how you think.
“[For two years], each year, it’s been like 20 years crammed in one year. It’s felt like 40 long years. It’s been horrible to wake up in the morning, to smile when your heart is breaking. I would just get in my car and ride around just so I could scream. There is nothing that could take away that pain.
“When 60 seconds passes, it still feels like hours and hours and hours and hours. It’s a never ending process. It’s liked being raped over and over and over because it never ends.
“I’m not proud that [Smith] is going to die. But I do believe in justice. And I do believe that if you are this dark and evil and you get away with it once, you will feel like you can do it again. As mothers, we’ve got to say 'no more.'
“The judge said it so wonderfully that everybody loses. But my loss is greater than [Smith and his family's] loss. They have to live with what they raised. I have to live with my child not being here. My son died a terrible death and knew everything that was happening to him. To come up with reasons as to why [Smith] did what he did, that’s no excuse.
“I am grateful for the DA, the judge and the jury because as parents, they told the world that our children matter.
“I am going to put it this way, what a man does for himself dies with him. What he does for others is immortal and it lives on forever. I am so grateful and proud to say that I was the mother of Kevin Tyrone Thompson.”
© 2013 – This report was made through WLJS News in Jacksonville, Alabama
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